Guest Review: EL FLAMINGO

EL FLAMINGO by Nick Davies (2023)

Reviewed by Alyson Baker

With no role in sight and nothing to lose, actor Lou Galloway leaves Los Angeles and heads to Mexico to drown his sorrows in cheap mezcal. But, after a round too many, he soon ends up at a grandiose wedding in the mansion of internationally wanted crime lord, Diego Flores, where Lou is mistaken for a rogue assassin known simply as El Flamingo. 

Before he can escape, he meets Maria-Carla, an enigmatic beauty with incredible perfume, and he inconveniently falls in love at first sight. When it becomes too late to turn back, Lou is swept into the dangerous world of Latin-American espionage, embarking on a journey that will take him from the desert fiestas of Mexico to the jungle-clad salsa bars of Colombia. To survive, Lou is forced to do the one thing he swore he would never do again-act.

However, as Lou assumes the identity of El Flamingo, he realizes that this may be what he was searching for all along. Maybe this was fate? Maybe this will be the role of his life!

Lou Galloway has given up his Hollywood dream and taken off for Mexico – where he falls into a whirlwind adventure, acting out the role of a lifetime. With a magic realism start, a Narcos middle, and a [no spoilers] ending, El Flamingo is a joyous ride.

From a deserted beachside bar in “Playa del something-or-other” to the jungles outside of Cali, Colombia, El Flamingo keeps the reader in what will be, for many, territory familiar from American movies and TV shows. And Lou’s lines in part coming from scripts makes the reader even more at home.

“Who would’ve thought acting was a superpower?” This book is a tribute to the noble profession of acting, of getting into a role and effectively selling yourself – in Lou’s case as El Flamingo, an enigmatic hitman. As you read El Flamingo you question whether everyone around Lou is also just playing a role – and whose side each is on: “Had I shaken hands with God? Or done a deal with the Devil?”

There is a nice meta level to Lou’s narration advising the reader at one point that they are reading “A mystery, a thriller, and now, a romance. At least for tonight”. But due to Lou not being sure what’s happening, the reader keeps guessing what the next twist will be – and this reader at least was continually surprised by the plot twists.

References to Don Quixote abound – was Quixote a fool or a hero? And which is Lou? 

“Somehow, I’d become an utterly unreadable man, all down to the fact that no one was more confused about the whole thing than me.” This self-deprecation is what keeps the reader engaged, and also rooting for Lou in his newfound mission to decidedly be a hero – yet concerned about his confidence to follow through – “As it always does, the coffee began to raise my over-all level of intelligence.”

There are some fabulous scenes in the novel, a novel that would make a great movie – there is the dance in a salsa bar in a rainforest, Maria-Carla singing in the El Jaguar Cantante, the demonstration of what can be done with a single playing card or a bottle of expensive bubbles, and that surreal moment early in the piece when Lou enters a lavish party out in the middle of nowhere – “a gringo idiot in a cheap Hawaiian shirt.”

The plotting of El Flamingo is superb apart from one major coincidence the plot hinges on, requiring a regular influx of failed actors into Mexico. Aside from this, all is neatly explained, and after all “Sometimes, even in Mexico, an extra sombrero is too much to ask”. I just loved reading this book!

Alyson Baker is a crime-loving former librarian in Nelson. This review first appeared on her blog, which you can check out here. 

Review: A CRACK IN THE WALL

A CRACK IN THE WALL by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Miranda France (Bitter Lemon, 2013)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Pablo Simó's life is a mess. His career as an architect is at a deadend; reduced to designing soulless office buildings desecrating the heart of Buenos Aires. His marriage seems to be one endless argument with his wife over the theatrics of their rebellious teenage daughter.

To complicate matters, Pablo has long been attracted to sexy office secretary Marta Horvat, who is probably having an affair with his boss. Everything changes with the unexpected appearance of Leonor, a beautiful young woman who brings to light a crime that happened years before, a crime that everyone in the office wants forgotten, at all costs.

This is a novel that I'd been meaning to read for a while, having met Claudia Piñeiro, Argentina's Queen of Crime Writing, at Crimefest a few years ago and been impressed by her onstage and when I interviewed her for the 9mm series. I finally got to it during the pandemic. 

(As so often happens, having to focus on reading and reviewing new release and upcoming books for magazines - plus other recent tales for awards judging and prep for festival panels etc - meant my reading time was devoured and this wee gem of Latin noir sat on my shelf for far too long.)

Let's get this out of the way first: if you're a big fan of police procedurals or classic murder mysteries and are curious about a Latin American equivalent to stretch your wings a wee bit, Piñeiro's writing may not be what you're looking for, no matter how stylish her prose and deep her characterisation. The Argentine author writes unusual tales that are more akin to noir-ish character studies, psychological explorations of people and place. 

Absorbing, intriguing, and quite different to much of what's out there. 

A CRACK IN THE WALL is a case in point. It's centred on Pablo Simó, a middle-aged Buenos Aires architect who is muddling through a rather dull existence. He's underappreciated at work and home, but perhaps that's because he doesn't hold himself in much regard either. Chicken-egg? His notebook is full of sketches for an office tower he'd like to see built one day, and he has fantasies about his co-worker Marta, but those are mere dreams and distractions that occasionally prick at his dreary life. He trundles on until his life is rocked by the appearance of a beautiful young woman with ties to past misdeeds. 

Pablo hoped that past had been buried, literally. 

Piñeiro, adroitly translated by Miranda France, lures readers in with her wit and storytelling infused with philosophy and atypical characters and set-ups. We travel through past and present with the under-pressure Pablo, uncovering the truth behind many things. A CRACK IN THE WALL is thoughtful, character-centric crime fiction infused with social commentary that delivers on many levels. 

Something a little different; well worth a read. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed Kiwi lawyer who now lives in London and writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. Craig's been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, McIlvanney Prize, is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020.

Birdsong and unconventional heroes: an interview with Mercedes Rosende

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the latest weekly instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021. This author interview series has now been running for over a decade, and today marks the 220th overall edition. 

Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today I'm very pleased to welcome award-winning Uruguayan lawyer, journalist, and author Mercedes Rosende to Crime Watch. She is the author of the darkly comic thriller CROCODILE TEARS, a devilish tale of heists and betrayals set in the author's hometown of Montevideo. That book - her first translated into English - won the LiBeraturpreis in 2019, a German literary prize that celebrates the best books from female authors from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab world. It was made available for English-speaking readers this year thanks to Bitter Lemon Press and translator Tim Gutteridge.

I've read several Latin American crime writers over the years, from a variety of countries (even Bolivia), but CROCODILE TEARS was my first ever from Uruguay (a country where I farewelled 2007 and said gidday to 2008, during four months in South America). As I said in a review earlier this month, CROCODILE TEARS is "a real cracker. A darkly comic story of weak men, strong women, and a heist gone horribly wrong. A sort of Latin American calamity noir; shades of Fargo - though shifted to the grimy heat of Montevideo rather than the icy climes of the American Midwest."

As part of winning the LiBeraturpreis in 2019, Rosende - who also lives in France - received financial support to help implement a literary project for women or girls in Uruguay. She has won several other prizes for her novels and short stories, including the Premio Municipal de Narrativa for ‘Demasiados Blues’ in 2005, and the National Literature Prize for ‘La Muerte Tendrá tus Ojos’ in 2008. 

But for now, Mercedes Rosende becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm. 

9MM INTERVIEW WITH MERCEDES ROSENDE 

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

I have several crime fiction heroes but one of the first that really fascinated me was Georges Simenon’s detective, Maigret, who I initially read as an adolescent and I’ve continued to reread (or rewatch on TV) ever since. Later, I became more Latin American in my tastes and I was also drawn to less conventional heroes, people living outside the law, women. And that’s how I came up with Ursula, the protagonist of my own novels. But Maigret will always have a place in my personal pantheon.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I read books for younger readers that were generally translated into or, at best, written in European Spanish, which is not the same as the Spanish we speak in Uruguay. My first “grown-up” book was Montevideanos by the great Uruguayan author, Mario Benedetti, and it showed me it was possible to write in “Uruguayan”, in the language I used with my friends and family.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Before I wrote my first crime novel, I had written short stories – but hardly any of them were crime stories – and I’d published one book.

4. Outside of writing and writing-related activities (book events, publicity), what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I love having free time, I cope very well with having nothing to do, I enjoy it without either feeling guilty or having the urge to fill every minute with activities to replace work. I enjoy gardening, I like watching movies with friends, and I really love travelling. I also do occasional work for an NGO monitoring elections in other countries. It’s completely different from my work as a writer and I really enjoy it and put a lot of passion into it.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

The best time to visit Montevideo is in early January, when the city is silent and abandoned, there are no cars on the streets, no people on the pavements. It’s the summer holidays and a lot of people leave town for the beach, although Montevideo also has its own beaches. In fact, I’m answering these questions in Montevideo in January, and every day I’m woken up by the deafening sound... of birdsong.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

It would need to be a Uruguayan actress because I’d like them to talk like me, in my local language.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite or a bit special to you for some particular reason, and why?

My most recent book is always my favourite, so just now the one that feels special to me is a collection of short stories called Historias de mujeres feas (Stories of Ugly Women).

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

I was walking down a street in the centre of town, my first book had just come out, a book of short stories called Demasiados blues (Too Many Blues). I went past a small bookshop and there it was, sitting in the window. I was amazed but I also felt like a bit of an imposter. And I still feel like an imposter, like someone who’s passing herself off as a writer.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

Taking part in the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018 and 2019 was one of the most amazing experiences of my life: I went from a tiny fair, in Montevideo, to the largest in the world. Without any stopovers in between!

Thank you Mercedes, we appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch. 

You can follow Mercedes on Twitter here, and nab a copy of CROCODILE TEARS here. 

Review: CROCODILE TEARS

CROCODILE TEARS by Mercedes Rosende, translated by Tim Gutteridge (Bitter Lemon, 2021)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

The setting: Montevideo’s Old Town, with its dark alleys, crumbling facades and watchful residents. The gig: an armoured truck robbery. The cast: Diego, a failed kidnapper with weak nerves, Ursula Lopez, an amateur criminal with an insatiable appetite, the Hobo, a notorious hoodlum with excessive self-confidence. Dr Antinucci, a shady lawyer with big plans. And finally, Leonilda Lima, a washed-out police inspector with a glimmer of faith in justice..

One of my favourite things about books and reading is the ability to explore new places and perspectives via a page-whirring story. Perhaps growing up in New Zealand, a small (in population) country at the bottom of the world, played into me always being curious about the wider world. I've loved mystery and thriller tales since I was a kid too (thanks Hardy Boys etc), so nowadays it's no surprise I really like to read crime fiction from all over the world, and am a big fan of the publishers and translators who bring Anglophones like myself great stories from other languages. 

I've read several Latin American crime writers over the years, from a variety of countries (even Bolivia), but never anything from Uruguay (a country I briefly visited in 2008). Until now. 

So it was with some excitement I began reading CROCODILE TEARS recently, hoping to be dazzled rather than disappointed. Fortunately this first tale by Uruguayan lawyer and storyteller Mercedes Rosende to be translated into English is a real cracker. A darkly comic story of weak men, strong women, and a heist gone horribly wrong. A sort of Latin American calamity noir; shades of Fargo - though shifted to the grimy heat of Montevideo rather than the icy climes of the American Midwest. 

Diego is in prison, awaiting trial for a bumbling kidnapping plot that went awry. He's trying to survive the dangers of Uruguayan incarceration, only to be unexpectedly released thanks to a shady lawyer. The price? He has to team up with the notoriously violent Hobo to hijack an armoured car. 

What could go wrong?

Meanwhile Ursula Lopez is a voyeuristic woman with big dreams and big appetites. She's looking for a better life, by any means. Inspector Leonilda Lima is trying to keep her faith in justice while scrabbling among the misogyny and corruption of her police colleagues.

Lives collide, mayhem ensues. 

I thoroughly enjoyed CROCODILE TEARS. It's a deliciously dark thriller that gives readers a bit of a wink as it careens along, slipping between the perspectives and viewpoints of a variety of characters - as well as an authorial aside or two. Rosende, ably translated by Gutteridge, has some pizazz to her prose. There's an undercurrent of energy that suits the mayhem of the events that unfold. There's also something of a voyeuristic quality to the way Rosende takes readers into these characters lives, while commenting on them here and there. We're like Ursula, peering into the lives of others, fascinated. 

CROCODILES TEARS is a very good read that immerses us in the seamy world of some unusual, and quite memorable characters. If you enjoy darkly comic thrillers or stories of bumbling criminals and plans gone violently asunder, then I'd highly recommend you take a look. Another welcome addition to the global crime writing landscape. I'm hoping for more (in translation) from Rosende. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Writing for lazy people: an interview with Tim Gutteridge

Kia ora and haere mai, welcome to the third instalment of our 9mm interview series for 2021 - we're back on a regular track now after almost a year's hiatus. 

This author interview series has now been running for over a decade (though perhaps we shouldn't really count the last year), and today marks the 215th overall edition. Thanks for reading over the years. I've had tonnes of fun chatting to some amazing writers and bringing their thoughts and stories to you. 

My plan is to to publish 40-50 new author interviews in the 9mm series this year. You can check out the full list of of past interviewees here. Some amazing writers.

If you've got a favourite crime writer who hasn't yet been featured, let me know in the comments or by sending me a message, and I'll look to make that happen for you. Even as things with this blog may evolve moving forward, I'll continue to interview crime writers and review crime novels.

Today is a bit of a special day as we're doing something for the very first time on Crime Watch. While I've interviewed several crime writers for 9mm over the years who write in other languages and are translated into English, and have interviewed translators themselves about the art of crime fiction translation for a large feature in a US magazine, I have never until now included a translator in the 9mm series.

Thanks to the hard work of a diverse array of literary translators, English-speaking mystery fans are increasingly able to enjoy compelling tales from all parts of our globe, that originated in a wide array of languages. Personally, I love this. Not just the Nordic Noir wave of the past decade-plus, but Japanese mysteries, Afrikaans crime, Latin American noir translated from Spanish and Portuguese, and more.

Recently I read my first-ever Uruguayan crime novel, CROCODILE TEARS by Mercedes Rosende. It's a new 2021 release from Bitter Lemon Press, a terrific small publisher that has done so much to bring a huge variety of excellent authors from all over the world to a broader readership. Here's the blurb: 

The setting: Montevideo’s Old Town, with its dark alleys, crumbling facades and watchful residents. The gig: an armoured truck robbery. The cast: Diego, a failed kidnapper with weak nerves, Ursula Lopez, an amateur criminal with an insatiable appetite, the Hobo, a notorious hoodlum with excessive self-confidence. Dr Antinucci, a shady lawyer with big plans. And finally, Leonilda Lima, a washed-out police inspector with a glimmer of faith in justice.

Mercedes Rosende is a Uruguayan lawyer, journalist, and author whose novels and short stories have won several awards in Latin America and Germany. CROCODILE TEARS is her first novel to be translated into English, but while we are experiencing Rosende's story, it is the words of Tim Gutteridge we're reading. 

Originally from Scotland and now living in Spain, Tim is a literary translator specialising in Spanish-to-English translation. He has been an Assistant Professor at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, and has also worked as a bilingual lexicographer and English language teacher. Tim has translated fiction, non-fiction, and theatre. CROCODILE TEARS is his first crime novel translation. 

But for now, he becomes the 215th person (and first translator) to stare down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM INTERVIEW WITH TIM GUTTERIDGE

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

My reading habits are a bit unusual as I spend a lot of time keeping tabs on what’s new in Spanish, particularly by authors whose work hasn’t been translated. One Spanish crime series that I like a lot is by Berna González Harbour, and the protagonist is a female police officer, Superintendent Ruiz. The latest in the series is called El sueño de la razón (The Sleep of Reason) and it gives a very good portrayal of the sense of lost optimism that a lot of people in Spain have felt for the last decade or so. It’s a correction to the perception of sun and siestas that many outsiders have.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?

I think the first paperback I read was Down with skool! by Geoffrey Willans and Roger Searle. It’s one of those books that works at lots of levels, so I could read and enjoy it as a 7-year-old but looking back I realize it’s also a rather surreal and very scathing take on the whole English boarding school thing: Malory Towers meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Anyone interested in why the English ruling classes are generally such a bunch of ghastly sociopaths might want to start here.

3. Before the first novel you'd translated, what else had you written (if anything) - unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?

Well, translation is really writing for lazy people. Someone else does all the hard work – plot, character, style etc – and I just come along and copy it but in a different language. I blog as well, and also write the odd piece for professional journals. Perhaps inevitably, I also have a half-written play in my bottom drawer, about the Scottish colony of Darien (on the Panama isthmus) a crazy scheme that was meant to make Scotland rich by allowing it to control the Atlantic-Pacific trade route in the early modern period but instead bankrupted the country and precipitated us into union with England. On the journey out to Darien (which is tropical) the holds of the Scottish ships were full of horsehair wigs and woollen socks to trade with the natives. The mind boggles.

4. When you’re not translating, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?

I think the past year has really made me appreciate the little things: spending time with my kids, walking the dogs, baking, hanging out with friends on the beach.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?

When people think of Edinburgh they tend to think of the Castle and the Royal Mile. I actually think Edinburgh Castle is one of the worst castles in Scotland. It’s great from the outside but inside it’s just a boring shell, trashed by the military for a couple of centuries. Edinburgh’s best-kept secret (until now) is Portobello beach. I love the fact that, pretty much regardless of the weather, it’s busy. People play beach volleyball on windy grey October days, they swim without wetsuits in November. There’s something very Scottish about the refusal to make concessions to reality. It’s life-affirming – but also a bit mad.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?

I’m struggling to imagine what that movie would be like – or who would pay to see it! But I’m going to plump for Javier Bardem – directed by Pedro Almodóvar.

7. Of your translations, which is your favourite or particularly special, and why?

Because I work as both a literary and a non-literary translator, the reality is that a lot of my translation work isn’t in general circulation. Seeing reviews of my published work actually makes me think fondly of all the unpublished stuff – I guess it’s a bit like a parent remembering the other kids when one of them wins prizes. Apart from that, I’d like to mention my first book translation, The Mountain That Eats Men, by Ander Izagirre. It’s a piece of narrative non-fiction about 20th century Bolivia, which describes the situation of children working in the country’s exhausted tin and silver mines. The book fell into a bit of a marketing black hole so didn’t get much attention but the source text was great and really wide-ranging – from Quechua-inflected dialogue to wonderful descriptions from 17th century colonial chronicles – and I’m still proud of how I handled it.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first asked to translate a crime novel? Or when you first saw your first translation in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?

Crocodile Tears is actually the first crime novel I’ve translated, although I hope there will be more to come. The business of getting commissioned to do a given translation varies from book to book, and you have to remember that acquiring the rights and commissioning the translator are separate processes, so that even if you’ve been involved with the project by doing a sample or helping the agent to pitch it, there’s always the possibility that another translator will get the gig. I try to deal with that by not being too invested in any given project until I’ve actually signed the contract – and making sure I always have other projects on the go or in the pipeline. I’m wondering now, though, if I missed an opportunity and should have taken a bath in champagne.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you've had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?

Cue the sound of tiny violins as I tell you that I have only ever signed one book and never done an author event or attended a literary festival. Perhaps that will change in 2021.

Thank you Tim. We appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch

You can read more about Tim and his translation work at his website, and follow him on Twitter. 

Review: SWEET MONEY

SWEET MONEY by Ernesto Mallo, translated by Katherine Silver (Bitter Lemon, 2011)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Superintendent Lascano is drawn into a war between the Buenos Aires chief of police and the Apostles, drug-dealing cops who want to control the city. When the chief of police is murdered, Lascano becomes the Apostles’ next target. His only way out of the country is to retrieve the loot from a bungled bank robbery.

Ernesto Mallo paints a scathing portrait of Argentina, where the Junta’s generals are paraded in court in civilian clothes and treated like mere petty thieves. Corruption and violence continue to rule, but at the center of the novel lies a touching portrayal of two broken men, a cop and a robber, whose humanity is sorely tested by the troubles racking their beloved country.

First published more than a decade ago and set in the 1980s among the messy aftermath of the military junta that terrorised Argentina for years following a right-wing overthrow of the Argentinean government in 1976, Ernesto Mallo's SWEET MONEY is a slim but powerful crime novel.

Buenos Aires is a city rife with corruption. Many of those in positions of power are more violent and criminal than the criminals they're theoretically tasked with stopping. Inside this maelstrom, Superintendent Lascano tries to maintain a semblance of honour and ethics even as those very things may get you killed by those who fear and cannot trust anyone who isn't on the take alongside them.

SWEET MONEY is a vivid and blistering expose of life in Argentina in the early-mid 1980s. Even as the military junta came to an end and some sort of democracy was restored, the after-effects of years where suspicion and fear were the order of the day and 30,000 people were 'disappeared' means that daily life is still turbulent and dangerous. The hyenas are scrapping for survival in a changing world.

Perro Lascano is recovering from being gunned down by a death squad, but returning to his old job may be even more dangerous after the new Chief of Police, a tainted man who despite his flaws valued and protected Lascano, is murdered. Dirty cops are circling like vultures. Lascano wants to uphold justice and be a good cop, but his world may not let him. Meanwhile another man with a broken life, 'Mole' Miranda, is released from prison. A non-violent robber who has his own sense of honour, Mole is forced to return to his former life despite wanting to go straight. When the ' one last job' goes horribly wrong, Mole finds Lascano on his tail. Two rather decent men in a corrupt society.

Mallo delivers a compelling, gritty, atmospheric tale in his own distinct style. For example, dialogue is run-together in italics, which takes a wee adjustment by readers, but the story is so good that I didn't find it too distracting and quickly got into the flow. There's plenty of 'bigger' ideas and issues touched upon as the crime story unfolds, giving SWEET MONEY a strong sense of layer and depth. Lascano is a philosophical character, and the author muses on various topics throughout, but this never takes away from the rich story. The second in a planned trilogy, SWEET MONEY is a terrific book and we can only hope that at some point English-speaking readers can look forward to a third.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter. 

Review: DEATH GOING DOWN

DEATH GOING DOWN by María Angélica Bosco, tr: Lucy Greaves (Pushkin Vertigo, 2017)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Frida Eidinger is young, beautiful and lying dead in the lift of a luxury Buenos Aires apartment block. It looks like suicide, and yet none of the building’s residents can be trusted; the man who discovered her is a womanising drunk; her husband is behaving strangely; and upstairs, a photographer and his sister appear to be hiding something sinister. 

When Inspector Ericourt and his colleague Blasi are set on the trail of some missing photographs, a disturbing secret past begins to unravel…

More than sixty years after it was first published as La muerte baja en el ascensor (Death Takes the Elevator), this Emecé Prize-winning debut from the 'Argentinean Agatha Christie' is now available for English-speaking readers for the first time (it had also been re-issued in Spanish in recent years, as part of a collection bringing 'significant titles' back into print).

This is an intriguing read that gives a flavour of post-war Argentina and the tailend of the 1940s-1950s Peron presidency. Unusually for Latin American crime fiction, it leans strongly towards classic Golden Age murder mysteries in tone, pacing, and atmosphere, with some local flourishes, rather than hardboiled crime detectives or social novels packed with police and political corruption.

Because of that, it can read a little slow or dated at times, but it is an interesting book from a talented and rather overlooked author. Bosco (1917-2006) became famous in Argentina later in her writing career for her strong female protagonists, upturning macho Latin stereotypes, and the way she tweaked mystery conventions - but this first novel of hers has a more traditional feel, starring a 'thinking male detective' (though that was unusual in of itself in Latin American crime).

Inspector Ericourt is an older, experienced Buenos Aires policeman who seems to work slowly and methodically but is often a few steps ahead of where he seems. His younger colleague, Blasi, is keen as mustard; more impatient, action-oriented, and with a tendency to jump to conclusions.

Together they investigate the death of a young woman, discovered by a drunk man in the elevator of an apartment block in a wealthier part of post-war Buenos Aires. Some signs point to suicide, but that raises questions and mysteries in of itself. Who is the woman, why was she in the building? Was she upset after visiting someone there? Is her death evidence of a dangerous liaison, or something else?

DEATH GOING DOWN is a slim novel, but not necessarily a quick read. It's more absorbing than page-whirring, as Ericourt goes about his investigation in a very measured way, looking at the residents of the luxury apartment block and others who knew the dead women. There are plenty of suspects, secrets, clues, and red herrings for fans of classic Golden Age mysteries to enjoy.

More deaths follow, and secrets are poked at until Ericourt gathers the survivors together to re-enact the crime and unmask the killer. Clearly not ground-breaking in format for English-speaking readers, but it was a much lesser-used trope for Latin American writers (given that readers over there were traditionally much more distrustful of their police forces, so classic detective fiction was a rarity).

There's nothing particularly stand-out with the 'puzzle' aspects of DEATH GOING DOWN, but I enjoyed the insights Bosco gives readers into post-war Argentine life. Modern readers may pounce on suspicions about German and other European immigrants in Buenos Aires, or wonder why a death by cyanide poisoning is considered more likely to be suicide than murder (answer - it was quite a common method of suicide at that time), but Bosco's short novel, written in the 1950s, gives us an idea of how things were seen then, as opposed to an historic mystery novel set in those times but written by a modern-day author who has the benefit of hindsight but a lack of firsthand knowledge.

A good read, that brings an overlooked crime writer to English-speaking audiences. From what I've read about Bosco, I understand her later crime novels were bolder and more ground-breaking, so I certainly hope that Pushkin Vertigo will continue to bring out more of her oeuvre in English..

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes features for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he has interviewed 200 crime writers, discussed the genre onstage at books festivals on three continents, on national radio and popular podcasts, and has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, the McIlvanney Prize, and is the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Review: TEQUILA BLUE

TEQUILA BLUE by Rolo Diez, tr Nick Caistor (Bitter Lemon, 2005)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s not easy being a cop in Mexico City. Meet Carlito, a police detective with a complicated life. A wife, a mistress, children by both. He resorts to money laundering and arms dealing to finance his police activity. The money for justice must be found somewhere.

The corpse in the hotel room is that of a gringo with a weakness for blue movies. Carlito’s maverick investigation leads him into a labyrinth of gang wars and corrupt politicians.

This searing tale of a deeply flawed man trying to do some good within a corrupt system clocks in at less than 200 pages, but packs a huge wallop. Small but powerful. A word of warning: it’s what I’d call a ‘marmite book’, in that it’ll divide readers into love or hate camps.

One thing's for sure, it’s certainly not boring or run-of-the-mill.

Carlito Hernandez is a complicated man with a complicated life. He’s an underpaid detective in Mexico City, battling criminals while trying to earn enough to allow him to do his job, and also support the kids he has with both his wife and mistress. The consequences of his appetites.

Like many colleagues, Carlito has both personal and professional ‘side action’ going on: protection rackets and arms dealing helps pay his bills. It's just the way things are done in Mexico.

Carlito’s an interesting character: both deeply loving and rather selfish. He fights crime, and commits it. He has some sort of sense of honor, while doing dishonourable things to find justice – or pleasure.

When the body of a ‘gringo’ is discovered in a hotel room, it creates lots of new headaches for Carlito. His bosses want the case wrapped up in a certain way. But his maverick pursuit of the murderer pulls him into a maze of pornography, gang wars, and corruption among the country’s elite.

This is not an ordinary crime novel, or one that fits within much of the genre produced by US and UK writers. It is packed with machismo and misogyny along with corruption and crime. There's a sweaty seamy-ness to it. A thick atmosphere of grit and grime, dust and danger.

It hovers between energetic and over-the-top. But for me, for me, TEQUILA BLUE clicked.

I thought it was brilliant, scathing and satirical – like author Diez (an Argentinean native imprisoned decades ago by its military junta, who now lives in Mexico City) had a knowing wink and sly grin on his face as he was writing. Others may roll their eyes at over-the-top machismo, or struggle with the attitudes of some characters. But regardless of where you stand on that front, Diez delivers electric prose, with a biting social conscience beneath a grimy veneer of sex, drugs, and violence.

Marmite, but magnificent.

This is an extended version of a review I wrote for the first edition of Mawake Crime Review, a new project in Crimespree magazine focused on great crime fiction from Africa, Asia, Australasia and Latin America. 

Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes features for newspapers and magazines in several countries. In recent years he has interviewed 200 crime writers, discussed the genre onstage at books festivals on three continents, on national radio and popular podcasts, and has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, the McIlvanney Prize, and is the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can heckle him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Review: MURDER IN MONTEGO BAY

MURDER IN MONTEGO BAY by Paula Lennon (Jacaranda, 2017)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Privileged Chinese-Jamaican brothers Lester and Carter Chin Ellis have enjoyed a sheltered life as the heirs to the iced desserts empire Chinchillerz. One fateful night, following a fiery encounter with local law enforcement the brothers are taken to Pelican Walk Police Station, where Lester is detained for drunk driving, while Carter is released without charge. When Carter is shot dead within minutes of leaving the station his murder throws the police force into crisis mode.

Discredited Detective Raythan Preddy is put in charge of the murder case and is forced to accept the assistance of Detective Sean Harris, a Scottish lawman seconded to Jamaica. With his superiors watching his every move and the Chin Ellis family interfering with the investigation, Preddy is determined to catch the killer and save his career.

There's a lot to like about this debut crime novel, and overall I enjoyed what was a fast-paced and exciting read. Lennon takes readers to an exotic location, a tropical island 'paradise', and delivers a dark tale with plenty of grit and corruption, belying the 'smiley-faced' Jamaican stereotype. .

Detective Preddy is a proud Jamaican with a stain or two to his name, thanks to a high profile bust that went horribly wrong. He's unsure of his position within the police, but not unsure of his own skills as an investigator. So he struggles when an outsider who's been seconded to his team from overseas, Scottish Detective Sean Harris, seems to be favoured by the local bosses. Is this typical island inferiority, believing that someone from abroad must naturally be better trained or more skilled at their job? Particularly a white man? As far as the ganja-drinking Preddy is concerned, this is his patch and he knows better about catching local criminals than anyone else, whatever the bosses think.

That belief is put to the test with a tricky case, when one of the heirs to the popular Chinchillerz empire is gunned down shortly after being released by the Jamaican police. On the same night Carter Chin Ellis is murdered, his brother Lester is assaulted while in police custody. It's a media nightmare for the local cops, which sees the already tropical temperatures raised several notches. Questions swirl about their competence, even whispers of corruption, as Preddy and his under-funded colleagues try to track down who is responsible. Harris provides an intriguing foil, the foreigner who might be more, or less, than he seems. Is he a political stooge? Or a hard-working investigator who just has different methods to the proud Preddy, and is happy to voice his disagreement at times?

Overall, I enjoyed MURDER IN MONTEGO BAY, and I'd definitely read more from Lennon, if she keeps up with the crime writing. I particularly liked her evocation of the Jamaican setting, which more than just being an 'exotic location', she brought to life in a number of ways, from local customs and lifestyles, to the environment and range of people who populate the Caribbean island. I felt like I was there, alongside Preddy and Harris. At times I thought the local patois might have been a little overdone, pulling me out of the story - but that may have been because I wasn't quite fully drawn into Preddy as the main hero. I was observing (and enjoying) his adventures and efforts, rather than fully empathising or being sucked into the unfolding story without question. I was a little conscious that I was reading a story - an interesting a pretty well-told one, nevertheless - rather than 'living it'.

Having said that, I think that Preddy and Harris could grow into really interesting series characters, if Lennon were to continue their adventures (or Preddy's alone). There's an unusual and interesting dynamic between them, quite believable and multi-layered. Two proud men trying to do their best, with good intentions, but not quite clicking, so grating on each other and providing plenty of drama.

A good debut that shows plenty of promise, a gritty tale set against a vibrant backdrop.


Craig Sisterson is a lapsed lawyer who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He has interviewed almost 200 crime writers, appeared onstage at literary festivals in Europe and Australasia, on national radio and popular podcasts, has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards, the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards. You can find him on Twitter: @craigsisterson

Shipwrecked sailors and Buenos Aires theatre: a 9mm interview with Claudia Piñeiro

Welcome to the latest issue of 9mm, the long-running author interview series here on Crime Watch. At the end of May we hit the 150 interviews mark, and I took a moment to reflect on all the authors who have been interviewed thusfar (full list here), and where I could take 9mm in future.

As some of you may have seen on Twitter or Facebook, I conducted several 9mm interviews at the recent Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, so there'll be plenty more instalments being published in the coming weeks. I've really enjoyed interviewing so many fascinating crime writers from all over the world, and hearing their stories about books, writing, and broader life. I hope you have too.

Today I'm very pleased to share an interview with Argentina's bestselling crime writer, Claudia Piñeiro. I briefly met Claudia at Crimefest in Bristol in May (her first trip to the United Kingdom), where she was a star on panels addressing obsession in crime and setting stories in the recent past.

Claudia Piñeiro is an award-winning writer who delves into Argentine society across a number of forms: journalism, plays, television, and her outstanding literary crime novels. The latter have been translated into several languages, and thanks to Bitter Lemon Press (who helped set up this interview after Crimefest - kia ora guys), four of her crime tales are available for English-speakers to enjoy.

As well as being engaging thrillers, Piñeiro's novels are thought-provoking examinations of society and human nature. In Betibú (Betty Boo), a crime journalist partners with a famous writer to uncover the background behind a murder in a gated community, and Piñeiro puts the media under the microscope. In Las grietas de Jara (A Crack in the Wall), a jaded architect has his stagnant life upturned by the arrival of a young woman who has ties to a past crime the architect was involved in. That novel was longlisted for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award 2015.

Piñeiro has won several awards for her writing, at home in Argentina and for the various translations abroad. But for now, she becomes the latest crime writer to stare down the barrel of 9mm.

Claudia Piñeiro at the Crimefest bookstore

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDIA PINIERO

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero, and what do you love about them?
I really like Wallander, the creation of Henning Mankell. I like the imperfections in his character. Things don’t always go well in his world, for example in his love life or with his daughter. And that makes him more human, more credible. I could be friends with Wallander. I also very much like the characters created by Muriel Spark, especially the elderly cast of her novel Memento Mori.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Leaving aside childhood reading, I think Gabriel García Márquez’s The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor is the book that made me a reader. A teacher in secondary school recommended it to me and at the time I thought ‘how could I be less interested in the account of a man who gets lost at sea?’ But soon after I began it I was hooked and that taught me that it’s not the subject matter that counts but the writing itself and the writer’s skill in telling things, whatever they may be.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything): unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I had written television scripts, plays for theatre, articles and children’s books.

4. Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
The pastime that really makes me happiest is going to the theatre. I’m lucky to live in a city, Buenos Aires, where the daily offering of theatre is tremendous, there is always something good to see. I also like singing and dancing - but I seem to be getting worse at that.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Go to the theatre, definitely. And not only to the commercial shows, but to fringe theatre, too. For example in Buenos Aires at the moment there is an excellent show that takes place in a working garage - in the mornings they’re fixing cars there.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Well!! If the budget’s no object, I’d love it to be Julianne Moore.

7. Of your writings, which is your favourite, and why?
I always choose the most recent. Just as, with children, one tries to protect the youngest. In this case it would be Una Suerte Pequeña (A Little Luck)

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form?
The first thought that came into my mind was: ‘At last’. Because one doesn’t publish at the first attempt. And sometimes the journey is hard and rather dispiriting. So that ‘at last’ meant, this has been worth all the effort, worth the work, worth waiting.

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
After presenting one of my novels (A Crack in the Wall) at a festival, a member of the audience came up to tell me that he had bought a copy. I quipped ‘Well, I hope now you’ve bought it you’ll read it’. He answered: ‘Yes, if I buy, I read. This will be the second novel I’ve read in my life’. I thought, what a shame that this man has read so little, but I didn’t say anything. Then immediately he added: ‘I’d like to ask for your advice: I’ve written ten novels, do you know which publisher I could send them to, to get them published?’ That was the strangest thing that has happened to me at a literary event - to meet someone who had only read one book in his life and might read a second, and yet who had written ten novels that he thought good enough to be published. I don’t think I’m wrong to assume that they couldn’t have been: nobody who hasn’t read much can write well.

Thank you Claudia. We appreciate you chatting to Crime Watch

Read more about Claudia Piñeiro and her books at Bitter Lemon's website, and you can follow her on Twitter.

Review: THE BODY SNATCHER

THE BODY SNATCHER by Patricia Melo (Bitter Lemon Press, 2015)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

One bright Sunday on the banks of the Paraguay River in lowlands Brazil, the narrator witnesses the fatal crash of a small plane. He finds a kilo of cocaine in the dead pilot's backpack which he pockets. Thus begins a long slide into dark and dangerous deeds he never before would have considered. 

The term 'noir' is bandied about a lot nowadays as a synonym for crime fiction in general, or any type of darker, non-cosy crime, at least. But noir fiction (or 'roman noir') was traditionally a literary sub-genre somewhat akin to hardboiled detective tales, but centered on someone other than a detective.

In 'noir fiction', whether it was a victim, perpetrator, witness, or suspect, the 'hero' would often be self-destructive, trapped in no-win situations by both a corrupt system and their own failings. Think James M Cain more than Hammett or Chandler, or some of the novels of Jim Thompson, Elmore Leonard, and others.

With The Body Snatcher, acclaimed Brazilian author Patricia Melo delivers plenty of that good old-fashioned pure noir. Her narrator is a bit of a loser, who lucks upon a tragedy and in a snap decision decides to improve his own life rather than calling the police. After all, who could it hurt?

Unsurprisingly, things don't go well.

The set-up for this tale of a 'hero' falling is a familiar one: a pretty ordinary man stumbles over a crash in a remote area and finds no survivors but does find something of life-changing value. Can he get away with taking it for himself? In this case its a large amount of high-grade cocaine, rather than a suitcase full of cash or other valuables. But Melo delivers more than just A Simple Plan transplanted to the Bolivia-Brazil border. The former screenwriter expertly draws us in to the sultry and stifling world of the region, the environment and the people - rich and poor of the region - a place where survival is the highest value and decency seems to corrode in the humidity.

After taking the cocaine for himself, the narrator later learns the pilot's body was washed away by the time the wreck was discovered. Juggling a girlfriend who works for the police with an amateurish side business selling his windfall baggie by baggie on the street, he decides to use his inside knowledge of the crash to his advantage, looking to make even more money off the grieving family. How much would they pay to recover their beloved son's body for burial?

Distilled like that, the narrator comes across like a bit of a scumbag, and there's certainly plenty of evidence to back up that view. But like the noir masters of the past, Melo does a nice job creating a narrative drive in The Body Snatcher where readers are drawn in by her skill, so that we want to follow along even if the lead character is pretty dis-likable or lacking in moral compass. He's not an evil man, perhaps not even a bad one, just an ordinary guy who gets caught up in something and whose own self-interest overwhelms any thoughts for others as the hole gets deeper and deeper.

Fans of classic noir will likely enjoy The Body Snatcher, which seems a good example of the form. The story has a grittiness and griminess to it, where everyone involved is corrupt or corruptible, a little or a lot. For those more used to other types of crime, it could be a bit jarring in parts, style or perspective-wise, but Melo has an adroit touch for pared-down prose, and there is plenty of action to keep the pages turning. Overall I found it to be a tale that I admired as much as enjoyed.

Craig Sisterson is a journalist from New Zealand who writes for magazines and newspapers in several countries. He has interviewed more than 140 crime writers, discussed crime fiction at literary festivals and on radio, and is the Judging Convenor of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. Follow him on Twitter: @craigsisterson 

9mm: Brazilian author Patricia Melo

One of my favourite crime  publishers is Bitter Lemon Press, because they've introduced me to an array of talented crime writers from all over the globe that I mightn't have otherwise heard about or had the opportunity to read. I love to travel, and I'm a big fan of reading books from many different countries.

So today I'm very pleased to host the marvellous Patricia Melo here on Crime Watch. Patricia is a Brazilian novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, who has won awards in several countries, and was named by TIME magazine as one of Fifty Latin American Leaders for the New Millennium.

Her crime novels are cleverly constructed and full of passion, sex, and violence, bringing urban Brazilian life to stark and vivid life. She is known for "dismantling Brazilian society" in her novels, and it has been said that her work "proves, to the despair of certain academics, that crime novels can, first and foremost, be good literature". Her latest book translated into English is THE BODY SNATCHER (Bitter Lemon, 2015), which was called "A literary highlight, world class literature" by the Jury of the German Crime Award. It is now available in the UK and will be released in the US next month.

But for now, Patricia Melo stares down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA MELO

Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective, and what is it you love about them?
Regarding the roman noir heroes I am "romantic". My preferred ones are Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, the legendary characters  of Dashiell  Hammett and Raymond Chandler’s novels.  Both are dysfunctional beings, living in a corrupt and morally sick society, and although they are outsiders, they have a very strong ethical sense, which gives them a very special charm. I was never a fan of  rational detectives, who solve crimes in their offices, using just logic and reason.

What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
I  remember reading my first book, A Vaca Voadora (The Flying Cow). I was probably six years old and it told the story of a cow who used to meditate. I fell in love with the book (and the cow). Of the noir literature The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett was my first reading experience . I was fifteen years old and had a dream of becoming a scriptwriter.  His characters full of pathos, his pulsating rhythm, every detail in his literature had a strong impact in my future literature. What struck me specially was the way he makes the city and society  characters in his novel.

Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I started my career as a screenwriter. After having written many scripts for films and TV programs I lost the passion for both those media. The scriptwriter's job is very frustrating, in my opinion. You're a kind of horse for the director. You feel always tied. The freedom you find in literature is unique. I am increasingly convinced that literature  is the freest of all art forms.

Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
For many years, books and films were my greatest pleasure. When I turned 50, out of the blue, I started painting. Since then I have been studying watercolor techniques, and discovering with great enthusiasm fantastic watercolorists as Joseph Beuys and Rodin. I created the cover of my latest novel in Brazil. Unlike writing, which causes me immense anguish, painting is just pleasure for me.

What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn't initially consider?
São Paulo is not a city, it is a world: 18 million inhabitants! It is not a beautiful city, the traffic is crazy, life is expensive, there  much violence, but there is not anything like it in Brazil in terms of cultural life. If you are around it, rent a bike (the city has now a good  network of cycle paths) and go to Vila Madalena, a neighborhood full of small art galleries. Then you will have a good notion of our contemporary cultural production.

If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
If my life was a movie I would prefer to choose the director: Eduardo Coutinho, the most talented documentary director Brazil ever had, who sadly died last year in a tragic way. Maybe he would choose not just one but various actresses to play my role.

Of your writings, which is your favourite, and why?
Fogo-Fátuo (Ghost Light), my last novel. Although I was labeled a crime novelist since my first book, this is really my first crime novel. It tells a story of the mysterious death  of a famous actor during a performance. For the first time I have a detective, Azucena, leading a difficult investigation  in a corrupt police system.  I tried to create a “classic” detective novel using elements of contemporary Brazil.

What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form?
 I thought to myself "finally I will get rid of producers and directors". Jokes aside, it was a great feeling of freedom. I mean, artistically speaking. For a long time, I kept an almost pathological curiosity about the readers. I had a friend who owned a bookstore, and I use to call him daily to ask about the people who had bought my book. Who are these people? What else they buy? Readers are almost metaphysical figures in writer’s lives.

What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
When I was publishing Acqua Toffana, my first novel, I received an anonymous letter, with flowers, during the book signing. The author, in a dubious and "poetic" way  treated me like his partner in crime. I was scared for some days. I felt I was in a Hitchcock film.


Thank you Patricia Melo. We appreciate you taking the time to chat to Crime Watch

Have you read any of Patricia Melo's novels, in the original Portuguese or in translation? Are you a fan of Latin American crime writing? Please share your thoughts with a comment. 

Dinosaurs, bonsai, and devilish violins: Oscar de Muriel

A locked room mystery involving a cursed violin set in an atmospheric evocation of nineteenth century Edinburgh? Mexican author Oscar de Muriel certainly penned something quite unique with his debut crime novel.

I had the pleasure of meeting Oscar at the Penguin Crime Drinks in Soho, London, before I headed back to New Zealand for a couple of months. I'd heard a little about his debut novel, which mixes crime, history, music and the occult, and it was great to meet him in person and have a chat.

Oscar grew up in Mexico and knew he wanted to be a writer from a young age. He credits Michael Crichton's novel JURASSIC PARK for scaring him so profoundly that it opened his eyes up to the possibility of how thrilling stories could be, and made him want to be a writer. He initially moved to the UK to complete his doctorate in Chemistry, and while writing academic papers the idea of "a spooky whodunnit" started forming for him.

A violin player himself, Oscar was intrigued by the idea of incorporating "The Devil's Sonata" into a story, and was further inspired by Edinburgh as a crime setting after visiting the Scottish city. The Lancashire-based author's debut novel draws on all these things, and marks another step in his writer's journey that started back when a story about resurrected dinosaurs scared the bejesus out of a 10-year-old Mexican kid. But for now, Oscar de Muriel becomes the latest author to stare down the barrel of 9mm.

Oscar de Muriel with Crime Watch's
Craig Sisterson in London, March 2015

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH OSCAR DE MURIEL

1.Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?
Besides the obvious Sherlock Holmes, I love the adventures of David Starr, by Isaac Asimov. It’s basically Sherlock in the 30th century and in each book there is a murder mystery in a different planet. The last book, THE RINGS OF SATURN, has the best and cleverest twist ever.

2.What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
Very, very first was a collection of myths and legends from around the world. It had abridged versions of the Odyssey, the Arabian Nights, the Arthurian tales, and so on. However, the book that made me want to become a writer was JURASSIC PARK. It was far scarier than the movie; I read it when I was 10 or 11, and until then I didn’t know a book could have such a thrilling effect.

3.Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
I’ve written a couple of historical novels set in 19th century Mexico, and a novella in an even earlier period. I’d really like to revisit them. One of them is particularly dear to me.

4.Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
I am a former violin player and still do a bit of fiddling from time to time. This inspired the core case for THE STRINGS OF MURDER, as I’m still passionate about instrumental music. I’ve now become a bit of a bonsai aficionado, which is a good break from the key punching.

5.What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
I grew up in Mexico City and I always recommend people to go to Casa de los Azulejos. It’s a colonial building completely covered in hand-made tiles, right in the town centre. It is now a very nice shop and restaurant, particularly good for brunch, as it has a great selection of egg dishes, including huevos rancheros and my favourite “drowned eggs” – that’s eggs poached in a super tasty sauce.

6.If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Daniel Radcliffe… if he can do the accent, that is!

7.Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
As above, I have a soft spot for this novel I wrote in 2007, which has not managed to see the light yet. Having said that, I’m really proud of THE STRINGS OF MURDER. I happened to blend all these seemingly random aspects of my personal experience (Scotland, violins, history, chemistry) and they happened to fit together surprisingly well. It all really started from a single phrase, and then naturally snowballed into this really nice story, which I hope people like as much as I do.

8.What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I remember quite vividly when my agent’s right hand called me with the news. The first thing that came out of my lips was “hang on, give me a second to pick up my pants”. Coincidentally, I had a bottle of champagne I’d won on a Christmas raffle and it went straight into the fridge. It was a Friday evening so I indulged!

9.What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
It was unusual but in a good way. I went to sign books at this lovely shop in Harrogate, where they had a fantastic window display: an old violin and loads of sheet music loaned by Harrogate’s Music Society. I didn’t know they had put so much effort into it, so it was a heavenly surprise.


Thanks Oscar. We appreciate you taking the time to chat to Crime Watch. 

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You can read more about Oscar de Muriel and his writing here: 

• Interview with Crime Fiction Lover
• The Book Trail analyses THE STRINGS OF MURDER
• Author website

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Do you like crime mixed with the occult? How do you feel about incorporating the supernatural into tales of murder and mayhem? Would you like to read THE STRINGS OF MURDER? Comments welcome.

Wanderlust, Argentinean stars, and Oprah: Annamaria Alfieri

Do you like your crime fiction in traditional locations such as contemporary London or the big American cities, or do you prefer to read great murder mysteries set in different times and places much more exotic? If you're fond of a bit of history, or intrigued by South America or Africa, then you might want to try an author I met for the first time at Iceland Noir last year: Annamaria Alfieri.

Alfieri, who had a successful business career and wrote several popular business books under her legal name Patricia King before becoming a novelist, is a keen global traveller who is fascinated by the history and culture of the places she visits. She has used that passion and knowledge in her crime novels, starting with CITY OF SILVER, which is set in the Bolivian city of Potosi - once the coin-making capital of the Spanish empire and the richest city in the world (along with being the highest city in the world). Having visited Potosi myself back in 2007, including a trip down into the still-working silver mines (blowing up things, and making offerings to El Tio, the devil guardian for the above-ground-Catholic miners), I had a wonderful conversation with Alfieri at Iceland Noir about the magic and magnificence of South America. Her passion and enthusiasm for travel, history, and mystery writing was infectious.

After three novels set in historic periods in South America (Potosi, Paraguay, and Buenos Aires), Alfieri turned to East Africa for her latest mystery: STRANGE GODS. Described as Agatha Christie meets Out of Africa, the book delves into both the natural beauty of the continent, and the complications caused by colonisation and clashes between cultures. All in all, Annamaria Alfieri would be a terrific pick for anyone working on the 2015 Global Reading Challenge, as I've often found that South America and Africa can be the continents that are toughest to complete. In the meantime, however, Annamaria Alfieri becomes the 109th author to stare down the barrel of 9mm.

9MM: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNAMARIA ALFIERI

1. Who is your favourite recurring crime fiction hero/detective?

I am sure I should think about this for while longer so I can make myself out to be extremely well read and erudite. I tried that, but I keep coming back to the same answer anyway: Amanda Peabody, the creation of the late, great Elizabeth Peters. The series begins at the end of the 19th century in Egypt where Amanda falls in love with an archeologist. The ensuing books are all absolutely delightful. Peters, whose real name was Barbara Mertz, had a PhD in Egyptology so she was no slouch when it came to research and knowing her subject, but the book are anything but labored. They are pure fun—with suspenseful, twisting plots and vivid pictures of the time and place. They move along at breakneck speed and are hilarious. Reading them is like watching Fred Astaire dancing—pure entertainment that looks absolutely effortless. But if it were that easy, everyone would do it. Peters is an idol and an inspiration for me.

2. What was the very first book you remember reading and really loving, and why?
As a child, most of what I read came from the nearby public library, but the one book we had a home—called the Wonder Book of Knowledge as I recall—had everything to fire a child’s imagination. A huge volume, with a blue linen cover, at least five inches thick, it contained an encyclopedia, a collection of children’s stories, brain teasers and riddles, glossy pages showing the flags of all nations and birds and animals of the world. And best of all, an atlas. My brother and I would lie on the living room floor for hours on end, pouring over the maps. I especially liked ones that showed small islands off exotic coasts, remote and intriguing. I would point to a tiny pink speck in the blue ocean off a pale green coast and say, “Imagine going to a place like that.” Those maps fed the wanderlust I still carry.

3. Before your debut crime novel, what else had you written (if anything) unpublished manuscripts, short stories, articles?
Before my first novel, I had five published nonfiction books—all on business subjects, using my legal name Patricia King. The most popular was Never Work for a Jerk, which landed me on the Oprah Winfrey Show. It remained in print for over seventeen years, and was translated into Dutch and Spanish. A sequel, Monster Boss, is still available. My first published crime fiction was a short story “Baggage Claim” in the anthology Queens Noir.

4. Outside of writing, and touring and promotional commitments, what do you really like to do, leisure and activity-wise?
Like a lot of writers, I like to cook. It’s nice to have a creative activity that begins and ends and gives pleasure all in an hour or two. Living in New York, I have a panoply of cultural possibilities at my disposal—opera, concerts, theater, cabaret, museums, galleries. These are the things I like to enjoy with my family and my friends. I serve on the board of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. I am a Bardolator, so a connection with a company that performs the plays is wonderful to me.

I am also an active member of the Mystery Writers of America/ New York Chapter—a tribe of generous and friendly writers who give one another much needed moral support and cheer one another on.

5. What is one thing that visitors to your hometown should do, that isn't in the tourist brochures, or perhaps they wouldn’t initially consider?
Since New York City is my home, the territory has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb. Because it is spring here, I offer the Conservatory Garden in Central Park. One enters at 105th Street and Fifth Avenue. Soon the flowering trees and the wisteria will be in bloom. It will be gorgeous; its loveliness will change as the seasons go on but will last into the fall. Not many tourists go there, but it is well worth a visit.

6. If your life was a movie, which actor could you see playing you?
Yikes that’s a hard question. The one who comes to mind is the great Argentine actress Norma Aleandro. But most people will not have heard of her. She looks more like me than any other actress I can think of. Female movie stars are usually glamorous, which I am not. So yes, I think I will stick with Norma. If people want to see her, I highly recommend her movie The Official Story, which is a brilliant film and worth seeing regardless of the reason.

7. Of your books, which is your favourite, and why?
Another very tough choice to have to make. That is like picking a favorite child. Strange Gods is the latest, and I am attached to its characters. It is the first of a series. My others have been stand alones. Now I have characters that I will be going with through several books, and this is a new and very nice experience for me. The second in the series is with my agent. I have just finished a first draft of the third. I like the characters. They are growing and learning and deepening. I am finding them good company.

8. What was your initial reaction, and how did you celebrate, when you were first accepted for publication? Or when you first saw your debut story in book form on a bookseller’s shelf?
I wanted to be a novelist when I was nine years old. But I grew up in a working class neighborhood in a moribund city. We kids of that place and time did not aspire to be starving artists. So, I had a business career before I wrote a novel worthy of publication. Then it took ten years for it to find an agent, then a publisher, and come out in print. I was deliriously happy. In my 60s, I realized my childhood dream. That is pretty special! After my agent called me to tell she had sold City of Silver, every once in while over the next couple of weeks, I went to look at myself in the mirror and said, “You are going to be published novelist.” It felt unreal and HAPPY!

9. What is the strangest or most unusual experience you have had at a book signing, author event, or literary festival?
As I said, my first published fiction was a short story in an anthology. The publisher arranged an event at a big Barnes and Noble Bookstore in Queens—the borough of New York where all the stories take place. The editor and four of the storywriters were there to do readings and to sign books. There were five of us on the dais. In the audience were the spouses of the three of us, the bookstore marketing coordinator, the janitor, and a homeless person! We soldiered on and had fun teasing and joking about the situation. Since then, I have had my self-promotion ups and downs, but none has been as disappointing—and few have been as much fun. Mystery writers are such a mutually supportive group. We can get each other through some tough moments.


Thank you Annamaria. We appreciate you taking the time to chat with Crime Watch

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You can read more about Annamaria Alfieri and her writing here: 

• Video interview at Bouchercon 2013
• Annamaria Alfieri on Murder is Everywhere
• Author website
• "The Africa Scene" - an interview with Michael Sears for The Big Thrill

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Do you enjoy historical mysteries? Crime novels set in Latin America or Africa? What have been some of your favourites? Have you read Alfieri's books - if so, what did you think? Comments welcome.